Chancery hand
The term "chancery hand" can refer to either of two distinct styles of
A chancery hand was at first a form of handwriting for business transactions that developed in the Lateran chancery (the Cancelleria Apostolica) of the 13th century, then spread to France, notably through the Avignon Papacy, and to England after 1350.[1] This early "chancery hand" is a form of blackletter. Versions of it were adopted by royal and ducal chanceries, which were often staffed by clerics who had taken minor orders.
A later
Blackletter chancery
This article is missing information about names of precursors outside of England.(February 2021) |
English chancery hand
In
The English chancery hand was already an arcane speciality by the time of the
Up early and by coach to White Hall with Commissioner Pett, where, after we had talked with my Lord, I went to the Privy Seal and got my bill perfected there, and at the Signet: and then to the House of Lords, and met with Mr. Kipps, who directed me to Mr. Beale to get my patent engrossed; but he not having time to get it done in Chancery-hand, I was forced to run all up and down Chancery-lane, and the Six Clerks' Office but could find none that could write the hand, that were at leisure.
Cursive chancery hand
This section is missing information about "cancelleresca" and "cancelleresca formata". (February 2021) |
The later cancelleresca corsiva ("cursive chancery hand"), often called "Chancery Cursive", developed from
In cursive chancery hand the pen was held slanted at a 45° angle for speed, but it could also produce beautiful calligraphic writing. In 15th-century Italy the cursive chancery hand was employed in correspondence, everyday business, and documents of minor formal importance.
It was adapted as the model for the italic typeface developed by Aldus Manutius in Venice, from punches cut by Francesco Griffo and first used in 1500 for the small portable series of inexpensive classics that issued from the Aldine press.
In 16th-century England it became known as the "Italian hand" to distinguish it from the angular, cramped, Blackletter-derived English chancery hand which had been developed earlier and independently.
See also
- Asemic writing – Wordless open semantic form of writing
- Bastarda – Blackletter script used in France and Germany
- Blackletter – Historic European script and typeface
- Book hand – Legible handwriting style
- Calligraphy – Visual art related to writing
- Court hand – Style of handwriting used in medieval English law courts (also known as law hand, Anglicana, cursiva antiquior, or charter hand)
- Cursive – Style of penmanship
- Hand (writing style)– Writing created by a person with a writing implement
- Handwriting – Writing created by a person with a writing implement
- History of writing
- Italic script – Semi-cursive, slightly sloped style of handwriting and calligraphy developed in Italy
- Palaeography – Study of handwriting and manuscripts
- Penmanship – Technique of writing with the hand
- Ronde script (calligraphy)
- Rotunda (script) – Medieval blackletter script
- Round hand – Type of handwriting
- Secretary hand – Style of European handwriting
- Zapfino – a digital typeface that simulates an italic chancery hand, designed by Hermann Zapf
References
- ^ Fisher, John; Richardson, Malcolm; Fisher, Jane L. (eds.). An Anthology of Chancery English. p. 3.
- ^ "Palaeography". UK National Archives.
- ^ Pepys, Samuel (1893) [1660]. Wheatley, Henry B (ed.). The Diary of Samuel Pepys. London: George Bell & Sons.
- ^ ISBN 9780521183161.
- ^ "Cancellaresca corsiva". Merriam-Webster. Retrieved 12 April 2016.
- ISBN 978-0-87923-332-7.
Further reading
- Benskin, Michael (2004). "Chancery Standard". Current Issues in Linguistic Theory. 252: 1–40. ISBN 978-90-272-4764-3.
- Osley, A. S. (1980). Scribes and Sources: Handbook of Chancery Hand in the Sixteenth Century. Boston: Godine. ISBN 0-571-11315-X. Facsimile selections from a range of continental and English writing masters.
- Sobecki, Sebastian (2021). "The Handwriting of Fifteenth-Century Privy Seal and Council Clerks". The Review of English Studies. 72 (304): 253–279. .
External links
- Medieval writing: 15th century English chancery hand
- Medieval writing: 16th century English chancery hand
- Palaeography: Historical Notes
- Encyclopædia Britannica
- List of online resources for early modern English paleography
- Palaeography: reading old handwriting 1500 - 1800 A practical online tutorial